56 soldiers dismissed

THE Namibia Defence Force (NDF) dismissed 56 soldiers for contravening the military disciplinary code from 2005 to 2006.

This was revealed by Defence Minister Charles Namoloh in Parliament. “Our Ministry cannot afford to continue employing NDF members who misbehave or have previously committed crimes.As an example, 56 members were court-martialled and dismissed,” Namoloh said last week.The defence force had to be very well trained and equipped to execute its responsibilities and that was a “very expensive exercise”, the Minister said in a short ministerial statement.The Defence Ministry overspent its budget for the 2004-2005 financial year by N$18,96 million.Permanent Secretary Peter Shivute told the Parliamentary Standing Committee last week that the overspending was because of salary increases as per Government decision.”Cabinet approved N$28 million to increase salaries of soldiers and officers from the rank of Lieutenant Colonel downwards.During the exercise it was found that many soldiers were on the wrong salary notches and we had to bring each member onto the right salary notch,” Shivute said.Adjusting the salaries and implementing the salary increases required more than the approved N$28 million and this resulted in overspending.Shivute further noted that the salary adjustments were until recently made manually, as the NDF salary system was not the same as the unified public service salary structure.”We are now part of the Integrated Financial Monitoring System (IMFS) which takes care of this issue automatically,” the Permanent Secretary said.”Our Ministry cannot afford to continue employing NDF members who misbehave or have previously committed crimes.As an example, 56 members were court-martialled and dismissed,” Namoloh said last week.The defence force had to be very well trained and equipped to execute its responsibilities and that was a “very expensive exercise”, the Minister said in a short ministerial statement.The Defence Ministry overspent its budget for the 2004-2005 financial year by N$18,96 million.Permanent Secretary Peter Shivute told the Parliamentary Standing Committee last week that the overspending was because of salary increases as per Government decision.”Cabinet approved N$28 million to increase salaries of soldiers and officers from the rank of Lieutenant Colonel downwards.During the exercise it was found that many soldiers were on the wrong salary notches and we had to bring each member onto the right salary notch,” Shivute said.Adjusting the salaries and implementing the salary increases required more than the approved N$28 million and this resulted in overspending.Shivute further noted that the salary adjustments were until recently made manually, as the NDF salary system was not the same as the unified public service salary structure.”We are now part of the Integrated Financial Monitoring System (IMFS) which takes care of this issue automatically,” the Permanent Secretary said.